Welcome To Canada
by Canadian Harry Potter Fan
Summary: Have any of you ever wondered what happened to the Cattermoles after Harry et al. Freed Mary from the ministry? Here is the story of their arrival in a new country and a new life. One shot for now but I might write more if you reveiew. Offshoot from my ML
1. Chapter 1

"Welcome to Canada" The flight attendant's voice came over the intercom informing the passengers of the flight that they had finally arrived in Toronto. Elle waited impatiently for the isle to clear. She knew they were in Toronto already, she had been watching the tiny image of a plane make it's way along the curved red line on the television screen the whole flight, waiting for them to get into Canadian air space. She had relaxed only slightly when it finally had. Her family could not claim asylum until they actually set foot on Canadian soil. The first step into the terminal brought with it a relief so profound it was nearly painful. Tears had welled up in her mother's eyes as her father had hoisted his son into his arms and her mother had clutched Melinda and Elle tightly. They were dirty, the backpacks on their backs contained all their worldly possessions, they were tired, hungry, but joyously _alive_. Even standing in a new country, with no money, no place to go, dreadful things happening back home, Elle had never been so glad in her life. So thankful just to be standing safe with her family. For a minute they simply held each other while tears of joy ran shamelessly down their faces. Then they had gotten hold of themselves and they had moved into the terminal.

They bypassed the huge luggage carousels,(they had not been able to grab much in their hurry to get away), and walked out into the terminal, wondering what to do next. To their shock they saw an asian looking woman in a nice suit holding a sign that read "Wizards-Welcome to Canada". Tentatively they made their way up to her. She took in their weary, bedraggled state with a sympathetic eye, then asked "Can you read the second line?" Elle's dad, Reg, looked at the woman confused. Then Millie, her little sister piped up

"Welcome to Canada?"

The woman now smiled warmly at them and they realized that the sign must say something different for the muggles, it was a test to see if they were magical or not. Certainly people would take notice of a person standing there holding a sign with the words 'wizards welcome to Canada' on it.

"Follow me and we'll sort you out." The woman said kindly. She lead them through a confusingly large hall filled with moving stairs and lines of people waiting for a turn at counters surrounded by trolleys full of baggage. Some were touching the screens of machines that were sticking out of the floor and having pieces of paper printed out. Toddlers cried and people ran, dragging family and bags behind them, obviously late for flights. Elle surveyed it all with a kind of manic energy. She was so worn to the bone she could collapse but filled with exceptionally large amounts of adrenaline and an eagerness to miss nothing. The lady lead them to an open booth like a store front on a street but with the front open as it was in the wall of the large hall. There were similar stops on either side of it renting cars and selling bus passes. As soon as they had crossed the threshold the lady began speaking again as she turned to face them.

A smile like a sunrise lit her face. "Welcome!" she stated as if she meant it with every fiber of her being. "Our system told us that a group of five magically inclined passengers was on that flight and that you had not applied for visa's with the English ministry. You are seeking sanctuary from the conflict there?" the smile deserted her at the mention of the war.

"Yes!" Elle's mother cried in relief tears streaming down her face. "Oh I am so glad, so glad we made it out." She tried to explain to the kind witch. "I'm a muggleborn, I was..." She faltered "Are we safe? We have sanctuary?" The Canadian affirmed this vigorously and the entire family was suffused with joy, as her mother continued "I was sentenced to life in prison for 'stealing' magic, and my wand... my wand was taken from me." The kind woman in the suit looked horrified and fierce as if she would like to hurt whomever it was that had made such ridiculous claims and enacted such a dreadful punishment.

"You don't need to worry, don't worry at all!" she took in their bedraggled state "I just need to ask you a few questions so we can get you're paperwork started for temporary refugee status, we'll look into more permanent paperwork once that's done. We currently have a program set up for you're support. It will help you find jobs, a home, take care of placement testing and enrollment of you're children in school, even shop for clothing and other possessions you have had to leave behind." She surveyed the sagging and bedraggled family before continuing "have you got all you're luggage or shall we go back and pick it up for you?"

Elle replied for her parents "This is everything, it was all to fast..." The woman smiled kindly and a man who had been sitting beside them filling out forms told the woman, Ms Chang, they had been informed, that everything had been taken care of for today. She then handed each of them a cloth sack before leading them out of the airport and across a bridge with windows, over roads full of traffic coming into and out of the airport, and into a comfortable lounge like room with a counter along one wall. Ms Chang went up to the desk and came back to the group with a key. "This is to you're room, number 1225, it's on the twelfth floor, do you need me to show you how to use the muggle elevator?"

"Thank you Ms Chang, but that won't be necessary." Elle's mum replied "I have experience with them. But I have to tell you..." now mum looked worried. "We haven't got any money, we had to run so quickly and I'm sure all our accounts have been frozen. We were lucky, I'm usually not much of a procrastinator, but I hadn't taken the time to transfer the trust my aunt left me when she died five years ago, out of the muggle bank. Otherwise we would have had to try to hitchhike into France, I would expect. She didn't have allot of money and it's all gone on the rush plane tickets we had to buy."

Ms Chang smiled her winning smile once more and told them it had all been taken care of before having her hand wrung by Elle's dad and acknowledging his repeated earnest repetitions, "Thank you! Oh, thank you so much."

She told them to come back to the booth when they were well rested and reminded them that if they were hungry all they need do was to add their bill in the restaurant onto the room's tab.

When they finally arrived in the room they remembered the mysterious sacks that had been given them. Upon opening them Mary gave a gasp of surprise as they revealed clean pajamas, toothbrushes, combs, a selection of travel games for the children, toothpaste, a few pre-packaged snacks, two full sets of clean muggle clothes in each of their sizes, one set of robes each, hair elastics for Elle and Millie, pamphlets explaining the Wizard Welcome program more fully, a pair of nail clippers in mum's bag, and a notebook and a few pens to keep track of things that they would need to do.

"Bless them!" Mary sighed before hustling the younger ones into the bathroom for a quick shower each before putting them to bed. The older three also took their turn in the shower Ellie reveling in the feel of the water gliding over her exhausted body, the pain of fatigue now nearly enjoyable because she knew she would soon be cuddled up with her little sister in a clean bed, in a safe place. With her little brother on the cot at the foot of the bed and her parents in the bed beside them. She climbed out quickly the feeling of being clean a marvel after a solid month of dirtiness. She had managed to give herself a quick wash with paper towels in public loos every once in a while but this... heaven. She crawled into her wonderfully clean pajamas and slid into bed beside her sister. She did not know what the world ahead held, but she was not frightened. Her last thought before she drifted to sleep was welcome to Canada.


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome to Canada Chapter 2

Ellie lay very very still. She could hear soft sounds of breathing around her. There was a soft pillowcase under her cheek and she was covered with a soft warm blanket. She did not open her eyes, but frowned. Why did she feel so tight and worn inside? Slowly ideas slipped through her mind, a confused sense of running, danger fear… She had had a nightmare, she concluded. Thank god she was back in her bed in Gryffindor tower. Slowly she opened her eyes thinking, "I have to tell Beth about that, that was so weird." With a quiet gasp of shock Ellie saw her little sister's sleeping face on the pillow next to her. They had not shared a room in years, there was something strange going on here. Slowly she rolled over she was in a hotel room.

Suddenly everything became clear. She had not had a nightmare. She was not going to be able to tell Beth anything for a really long time. She slowly levered herself out of bed so as not to wake Mazie. She looked around the room; she was the first one up. She tip toed over to the window and looked out. They had a view of the huge airport building. There were cars and busses streaming along a Celtic knot of roads leading up to all the various entrances in a beautiful kind of organized chaos.

She was very hungry, they had not had much to eat for the entire month of running and hiding and she had been far too nervous to consume anything on the plane. She had half expected the craft to be over run by people on broomsticks at any moment sending her and all the innocent muggles onboard spiraling down to a watery grave below. Last night they had all been far too tired. She rummaged though the sac she had been given. Brilliant, granola bars. She scarfed several of the chewy snacks too hungry to care that they had dried cranberries in them. She hated dried cranberries. Then she looked around for something quiet to occupy her while she waited for her family to get up. She found the pamphlet on the wizard welcome service and settled herself down for some reading.

She absorbed it all with extreme interest. It detailed the placement testing that her parents would undergo to help determine their qualifications for jobs here. And there would be testing for the children too to see what year of school they would enter as well. The school, Northland Colligate that served for all of Candida and hosted some international students as well, seemed like a very interesting place. The student's only slept there for one week out of two, so they could maintain relations with their families and the muggle communities where they lived. It seemed like Canadian wizards were far more in touch with the muggle world than the British. The paper mentioned that there would be classes to help them with the culture shock and teach them a bit about popular culture, although they would not be expected to know everything, as there were cultural differences between the muggle population of England and Canada as well. She was just perusing some pictures of the school; it really looked like a beautiful campus, when her father woke up yawning and rubbing his bald spot. When he saw her he broke in to a radiant smile and came over to give her a bone-crunching hug.

"We made it sweet pea!" he whispered to her. "We're safe!" Ellie clutched her father just as fiercely as he held her.

"Oh dad!" and tears leaked out of her eyes. Just then they were interrupted by a high young voice.

"Hey! Dad? Where are we?"

"Shhh Alfie boy!" Their dad whispered, "You'll wake your mum and sister."

"Too late!" Mary chuckled. Maizie was looking around sleepily as well and sat up. "Come here pets!" Mary beckoned her two youngest to her with outstretched arms, holding them tightly when they ran to her embrace.

Time was that Maizie would have been complaining loudly at being woken. Not now. Now she was as quiet as Alfred had always been and he was quieter still. The past month had changed them all.

Efficiently they got ready for their day. They washed brushed and untangled. They dressed in the muggle clothes, which would have been strange to them at the beginning of their ordeal but now were standard fare after a month of trying to fit in. They looked up the location of the restaurant in the hotel directory and took the elevator down to the fifth floor.

It was fabulous to sit at ease in the comfortable chairs and have the waitress with the funny accent take their orders. They each ordered generously, remembering too vividly the weeks of fast food if any at all. They each made sure to include tea in their orders, once a staple in their home, now a luxury.

Each bite of her sausage and eggs was heaven in Ellie's mouth. The tea was hot and sweet and there was an unlimited amount of it. Watching her family she thought that she could have truly been content eating noting at all, just seeing them enjoy the first square meal they had had in too long a time, suffused her with such joy she thought she might burst. Finally even Alfred was done with his toast and jam and they left the restaurant.

They returned to their room to freshen up and brush teeth then returned to the airport. Looking around it again Ellie thought it one of the most interesting places she had ever been. There was so much action and life. And there was no fear here. This was how home had once been. You would walk into a large place and see crowds. People lazed, on benches waiting for people or flights. There were even some asleep, no one had felt secure sleeping anywhere, even their own beds for so long now that it seemed amazing to her.

They found the booth again without too much difficulty. Mrs. Chang was there again. "How was your rest?" She asked them. They told her that it had been wonderful and she asked, "Are you feeling up to moving on with the process today or do you feel you need some time to recover? We can go as fast or as slowly as you need."

Mary replied "In all honesty I just want to get our lives back to some semblance of normal. I would prefer to get the children back into school as soon as possible."

"In that case. The first thing you need to decide is where you want to live. We have placements available all over the country."

"Wherever is most continent." Reg replied. "As far as I'm concerned as long as we can live somewhere where some deranged lunatic is not trying to lock up my wife and separate me from my children. I'll be as happy as a chipmunk in a nut factory."

Mrs. Chang perused her list. "There is actually a nice placement quite close to here. It's very close to a family that has volunteered to help refugees assimilate. They have children the same age as Maizie and Ellie. There are a few other wizard families in the area, and a house just about your size recently came up for sale. There are lots of job opportunities near by in both you and your wife's fields."

"That sounds perfect." Mary told her happily.

"Great." Mrs. Chang replied "I'll have someone put an offer in on that house and we can go see it this afternoon."


	3. Chapter 3

Welcome to Canada Chapter 3

**A****uthors Note: Hey all. I just want to give you a heads up so you aren't confused, this chapter starts off with some characters you haven' t met yet.**

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"MOM!" Terin yelled up the stairs. "PHONE!"

"Hello?" her mother said. Terin hung up her line.

"Hey Trouble," Terin's older sister said, poking her playfully in the ribs as she walked by, "no need to blow our ears off. Mum can hear perfectly well thank you very much."

Terin stuck her tongue out at her, "Sorry Jakea, but they sounded official and I thought it might be about Aunt Jill."

Jakea's brow furrowed in worry. They had not heard from their aunt in a month, not since she had been posted in England to help the resistance fighting there. Of course they weren't officially allowed to know that's where she'd been sent. But they'd have to've been stupid not to figure it out. "I hope everything's ok. Did they sound like they had bad news?" Jakea asked her.

"No, they sounded pretty cool. Happy even." Terin replied.

"That's good." Jakea turned back to the project she was working on. What, in your opinion was the greatest scientific discovery to influence the practice of magic? She was thinking about discussing the use of the human genome project to map those genes that predisposed people toward magic, but Newton's laws and their effect on the broomstick industry was also tempting.

"Girls?" Their Mom called down the stairs to them "Come up here please!"

Jakea sighed and raced her sister up the stairs. She had just thought of an interesting point about magic and dominant vs. recessive genes.

"Yes Mom?" They panted as they reached her bedroom.

"That was Mrs. Chang calling from the Wizard Welcome Program." Their mom told them.

"Oh, cool." Jakea said, "What did she want?"

"There's a family from England moving in down the street. They want us to be their Host family, help them learn the ropes. They have two daughters around your ages who'll be going to Northland."

"Sweet!" Terin cried, then sang while doing a happy dance. "We're getting new neighbors! We're getting new neighbors!"

"I'm happy you're so exited." Her mom laughed, "but remember it was probably awful being run out of your country by war. You need to make sure that you're sensitive toward their feelings. If they decide to share something with you, you should listen but don't go asking questions about the war. They might not want to talk about it."

"When are they coming?" Jakea asked.

"She said they are going to be moving in soon. Perhaps even this evening." Her mom replied. "It might take them a little while to organize things, though. Mrs. Chang said they barely made it out with the clothes on their backs, so they need to chose furniture, linens, clothes…everything. Out of the things people have been donating for the effort." They themselves had donated old clothes; toys, unused bathroom products, linens and even some seldom used furniture from the basement.

Jakea's mind flew to old movies she had seen when people moved in and the community showed up on the doorstep holding giant layer cakes. "We should bake them a pie or something." She mused.

"That's a great idea!" Her mom enthused. "Just let me finish up this paperwork and we'll get on it. Have you done your spelling Terin?"

Terin sighed, "Nope."

"Get on it." Her mom told her.

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Ellie stared around the small entryway with a box in her arms. It contained her selections from the donated clothes in the warehouse, where they had gone after an initial approval of the house. She proceeded to carry the box up stairs and left it on the floor of the room that would belong to both her and Maisie, before going back down stairs to help her dad maneuver a mattress into the living room. They just wanted to get the bulky stuff in to the house first, and then they could close blinds and levitate the stuff upstairs.

She had been flabbergasted earlier that day when they had gone to the warehouse to choose their new possessions. There had been so much, in so many different tastes that it had been easy to choose things that would work for them. Also the ability to magically alter colour was a huge bonus. Sure it was mostly used, but it would be strange for muggles to see a family move in with all new stuff.

The whole process was so well organized. There was no way that the family could have possibly individually located half of the items they would need. But the items had all been organized in groups to make it easy. 1 set pots, 1 set utensils, 1 set dishware, Girls clothes, size 9 regular jeans, all they had to do was point at something and check it off the list they had been provided with, it was so easy.

Then a tall blonde woman in her mid 40s was at the door. "Hello! I'm Sara Haswell; I live up the street from you. Do you want some help?"

Shivonne, the woman who had been in charge of helping the family move in smiled. "You're from the Cattermole's Host family?"

"Yes," Sara replied, "And these are my daughters, Jakea and Terin."

"It's very nice to meet you." Reg told them, shaking Sara's hand, before wiping a hand across his forehead, "Help would be lovely."

"Just tell us where you need us." The Jakea said, rolling up her sleeves


	4. Chapter 4 Moving in

**Thanks for the fave Taylor1991, it inspired me to get up off my posterior this morning and actually update for the first time in 2 years. Hopefully some of you are still interested enough in this story to read a bit more. I will endeavor to post more regularly in the future.**

"Man," Jakea commented. "It's a lot of work moving house isn't it?" She had just set yet another box upstairs and paused to take a break before going down for another.

"Yeah!" Ellie laughed "I never realized it before either." She walked over to the door of her room and peaked out, then shut it and whispered, "Lets take a break!"

Jakea grinned and nodded enthusiastically, sitting on one of the boxes. "If someone catches us, lets tell them we were trying to figure out how to arrange the furniture!" Ellie agreed trying to suppress giggles that would give away their whereabouts to the others.

"So your name is Jakea?" Ellie asked, "That's quite unusual."

"Yeah," Jakea agreed laughing slightly. "My dad was kind of hung up on having the first child be named after his grandfather. He was convinced I was going to be a boy. And your name is Ellie? Is that short for something? Like Eleanor or Eliza?"

"Yes," Ellie admitted grimacing "but you will never get my real name out of me. It's ghastly!"

"Ghastly, really?" Jakea asked teasingly wiggling her eyebrows. "However did you manage to shorten a name like 'ghastly' into Ellie?"

"Har har." Ellie replied in a tone of voice that clearly said 'oh you are so not funny'.

Jakea sighed theatrically "No comedy career for me, eh?"

"Sadly no." Ellie agreed.

"Well I suppose I'll have to comfort myself with my vast intellect and astonishing good looks."

"If you can." Ellie replied jokingly.

The door opened then, revealing Alfred "Ellie, dad says you two should come downstairs now, to help wiv the furniture."

"Sure thing short-stuff." Jakea told him ruffling his hair on her way past him. Looking down the stairs she said to Reg who was standing at the bottom "What do you want us to do?'

Reg looked up at her and said "We'll levitate the stuff up one piece at a time can you and Ellie just help guide it as we let it down so it doesn't gouge the paint?"

"Sure thing!" Jakea replied.

As they struggled and strained under the weight of a heavy dresser Jakea gasped out a question. "So I heard that wizards in England have almost no contact with muggle society, is that true?"

"Uh, yeah." Ellie replied confused.

"Weird!" Jakea replied setting down the dresser in the front bedroom.

"How so?" Ellie panted leaning heavily on the newly relocated piece of furniture.

"Well, how on earth can wizards get along with no muggle technology? I mean, no electric lights, or TV's or plastic?"

"Eclectric?"

Jakea walked over to the doorway and flipped a switch on the wall that Ellie had not noticed before. The room was suddenly illuminated, she flipped it again and the lights went off.

Ellie's eyes bugged. "How'd you do that? I've never seen that spell before!"

Jakea was in shock. "It's electricity, muggle energy you just push this button and it turns the lights on and off."

"Wow! That's so wicked!" Ellie was now staring at the switch and flicking the lights on and off and on and off.

Jakea stood up strait and said in a formal tone of voice as she handed over an imaginary sheet of paper. "Miss Cattermole. Please accept this as a formal application for the job of muggle society tutor. As one who has grown up with a muggle mother, in a muggle community and a muggle house I feel that I am eminently qualified to fill this post." She then gave a flourishing playful bow.

Ellie was still wide eyed from the revelation of the amazing little switch that she was still investigating thoroughly, "Jakea, do you think there's one of these in my room?"

Jakea facepalmed with an incredulous smile then put her arm around Ellie's shoulders. "Come young padewan, you have much to learn." And she led the brown haired girl out of the room.


	5. Chapter 5 unpacking the kitchen

**Author's Note: Well a week later and another chapter already. So far my resolution to update more frequently is going well. We'll hope that continues. I suddenly realize that I have as of yet neglected to ever put down a disclaimer. I shall have to try to live up to the funny and creative ones I have seen on other stories. Oh dear, well, we'll see how it goes.**

**Disclaimer: I'm barely scraping up reviews for this thing; money is definitely out of the picture. **

"So Jakea," Mary commented over a box of dishes she and the girl were unpacking in the kitchen, it was the second day of their move. "What is the school like here?"

"It's great!" Jakea replied with enthusiasm. "It's so much fun, way more fun than anything we did in regular primary school. We all stay there to sleep every second week, so Tuesday Tere and I are going to be back there and we won't come back until the …." She paused to think for a second "Monday after next. It's one of the stay weekends. We are having a special fall program where we're, well my class, is going to be doing a survival campout in the woods behind the school. Terin's class is going to be doing drama for the weekend, and the other classes will have different activities."

"Why are you staring the week on a Tuesday?" Millie asked, confused.

"Oh, well this week's thanksgiving, so we have a long weekend, Monday's a free day." "Thanskgiving?" Mary asked.

"Don't you guys have that in England?" at their bewildered looks she continued. "It's an old harvest holiday. It's meant to give thanks at the end of the harvest season for the food to bring us through the next winter. Of course now it's more tradition than anything else as hardly anybody actually farms anymore, and food is imported from all over the world but it's still lots of fun. We're having a big turkey dinner on Monday, mum's planning on inviting you guys to come celebrate it with us."

"That sounds lovely." Mary said.

"From what Ellie's told me Mrs. Cattermole, our culture in Canada is really, really different from you guys' culture in England. So we're going to do everything we can to help you guys get used to it."

"That's very generous of you." Mary said.

"It's a great opportunity for us too." Jakea stopped working to look sincerely up into the older woman's eyes. "We get the chance to learn about a culture that is so different from ours and it give mum something to think about. Please don't mention this to her but, my aunt Jill is in the military. She's off right now on a top-secret active duty mission. It's pretty dangerous and my mom is worrying allot over it. Being able to help you guys out will give her something to do to take her mind off worrying."

Jakea looked down and started working again very quickly. Mary took the hint that Jakea did not want to talk about it any more but she could see Millie opening her mouth with a question on her lips.

"So what year are you in?" Mary asked quickly to change the subject. Millie scowled at being cut off but her mother gave her a stern look and shook her head decisively.

"Oh, I'm in grade 10 right now."

"Grade 10?" Millie asked. "You're 20?"

"No, I'm 15, the same as Ellie." Jakea replied confused. "I'm sorry I'm not sure how your school system works. Here, we start kindergarten when we're 4. We have 2 years of kindergarten then we start grade 1 when we're around 6. Grades 1 through 6 are elementary school. In the muggle system grades 7 and 8 are middle school, but for magic people we start at Northland then, when we're around 12 years old. Then for people without magic grades 9 through 12 are high school. Magic people continue at northland for those 4 years. Then muggle or magic you can chose to end your education there, or go on to further schooling either focusing on academics in a university or trade skills in a collage."

Mary looked a bit taken aback. "That seems rather more complicated than our system." She commented. "In England the children start Hogwarts when they are 11 years of age and they continue there from first through seventh year. After seventh year they are done and considered legal adults allowed to use magic outside of school when they are 17."

"What do they do before …Hogwarts, was it? Why on earth did they name it that?" Jakea replied.

"You know I don't really know why they called it Hogwarts. It was founded over 1000 years ago and I expect the story has been lost in the intervening years. As for what students do before school it depends on the student. I, being muggle born, never realized until I received my acceptance letter that I was a witch. Both of my parents were greengrocers and I thought I was perfectly normal up until the summer when I turned 11. So, I went to a muggle primary school with all of the other kids in my neighborhood. Children born to magical parents rarely attend primary school. They are taught at home."

"But what if the parents want to send their kids to elementary school?" Jakea asked confused. "Do they send them to the muggle schools?"

"Oh, no, no, I've never heard of a wizarding family sending their child to a muggle school."

"Not even people like you who were raised in muggle communities?" Jakea was shocked.

Mary blinked and considered a minute, "No, I'm almost embarrassed to say, it never even crossed my mind to send my children to muggle primary school. It simply isn't done."

"Wow, well, I guess it makes sense. Yesterday Ellie didn't even know what a light switch was. If she had gone to muggle school she defiantly would have. But then how do you manage to uphold the statute of secrecy?" Jakea was confused.

"Why, what do you mean?" Mary asked.

"Well, muggles are all around us and if you're kids don't know anything about them, how do you keep from slipping up and doing something suspicious? Like not knowing how to turn on the light, or I don't even know what else. How do you manage to walk down the street if you don't know how the stoplights work, you'd step out into traffic…. How would you ever evade detection if you don't know all the little rules that muggles take for granted?"

Mary gave a little laugh. "Well we don't really go on the muggle streets that often." She explained. "We keep to ourselves. When I was in school I went out into muggle London with one of my closest friends. She tried to wear a top hat and tails on the underground. It was one of the funnies things I had ever seen in my life. I stopped her of course and got her to put on something inconspicuous."

"But think if she hadn't had you with her." Jakea pressed on. "I mean being muggle born you know these things, but she would have wandered off in her hat and tails and I'm sure it would have caused a stir. How do you manage that kind of thing?"

"Well," Mary paused as if thinking about it for the first time. "I guess if it gets too bad they call in the oblivators."

Jakea's mouth dropped open. "Seriously?"

Mary turned a bit red. "Yes." She answered simply. "But you must understand, it is only very rarely that we even go out into the muggle world…"

"Wow. I never would have even considered that it was possible. But it really sounds like that is true. In England the wizards and the muggles are in two different worlds."

"Yes." Mary replied almost breathless in surprise at the new revelations. The structure of the world she had taken for granted ever since she was a little girl, when questioned for the first time by someone who could look at if with a fresh pair of eyes, how broken the system really was. No wonder things had gotten so bad there. She was suddenly curious about the world that this young girl was from. From her reactions it was a completely different society from the one that she had adopted for herself in England.

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(pictured above: random spaces as I don't have anything to say down here but I always hate having to read stuff from the bottom edge of the window)


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